I'm not currently planning any contribution changes in my 401k, will still contribute to max out as if I was staying the whole year. Any reason to max early? Some companies don't let you join their 401ks right away, right? So maybe I should make sure I max out this year with my current employer? Ho...

After nearly a decade at my large employer, I am beginning to explore new opportunities. I think it is highly unlikely that I am still working there at the end of 2018. I'm curious if there are any best practices I should be considering given the expected change, financial or otherwise. For example,...

I did not and would not. We recently bought and sold. Having that extra cash on hand gave us flexibility. We were able to close on the new house first and sell the other three days later. This made the move a lot less stressful. I debated this myself and the amount I lie through the interest was wor...

Thanks all. This is very helpful. I think maybe I was overthinking the "I have a historically low rate locked for 30 years" aspect. But if I am unwilling to try to invest with the cash, then I am probably better off paying down. I think because it is such a large cash sum, I'm trying to be careful. ...

I wouldn't pay 3.75% to a bank just so I can have money available to me. If you are already at a risk level you are a comfortable with, have an emergency fund, and have reserves for "fun" and maximize your retirement -- strive to kill of that debt. Another way to look at it is to pretend you're sta...

I have a feeling I am going to end up splitting the difference between maxing down payment with all savings and minimum but was just curious on my thinking here! A few minor quibbles, such as you should use something other than 0% of your 100k example. But broadly speaking you thinking is correct. ...

We are moving up from our starter home and about to close on what we hope to be our home for at least the next 20 years until our kids are out of college. I have been debating the merits of different downpayment options. Our locked rate is 3.75%. I've read many threads here about pay down mortgage/b...

I think you're rushing it way too quickly. You won't even know who your mortgage will go to 3 days after closing. Unless the place you're going through guarantees they hold the mortgage. That's pretty rare these days though. You also won't have a mortgage payment for a month or almost two depending...

I am closing on a new home in a few weeks and trying to finalize my down payment and closing cost plans. We close on our new home on Tuesday and close on the sale our current home a few days later on Friday. From talking to my mortgage broker, sounds like it is fairly simple to take the equity from ...

Keep in mind unlike health insurance, where you pay one deductible for the calendar year, home insurance deductibles are per incident. In an unlucky year, you could get hit with say 2 x $4,000 claims and pay $8,000 out of pocket. I don't think $300 a year is worth $2,500 per incident increase, but ...

I am moving to a new home and updating my insurance. I am with Amica. I re-checked with other carriers and they are still the most competitive. I currently have a $2500 deductible, but I am strongly considering going to a $5000 deductible. The difference is a $300 savings per year. It seems straight...

Here's how I look at it: If one of us loses our job and is unemployed for a long while, will we need to sell or can we make the payment each month without draining all our savings? You state your combined income, but not what each person makes. If you are making 200k and your spouse makes the other...

You are age, income, and asset appropriate for this amount of home purchase. Aside from normal risk issues I'd work hard to verify that you are not overpaying or paying bubble price for a specific home. At $1 mil for a home making a mistake and buying a dog is a huge problem. Look very closely at c...

Hi all - looking for a sanity check on my home purchase numbers to make sure I'm in the right range. Please stick to advice about the finances of this home purchase and not the "I wouldn't spend X on a home" or "You don't need more space" or "Move to a cheaper town" comments. I appreciate the though...

I currently have a 1 and 3 year old. My 3 year old will be out of daycare in fall 2020 and my 1 year old in fall 2021. In the meantime, I'll be spending between $24-$30k per year on childcare. Curious for those who have already been through it. I know kids are still expensive long after daycare, but...

My wife and I are looking to apply for a mortgage if we find the right home during the spring market. I was just about to switch up my cell phone plan from AT&T to Verizon and before I ordered the phone (my wife is on an old Verizon family plan and I want to consolidate). As I was going to purchase,...

Despite my best efforts to hold on to my phone for a long time, it is starting to be sluggish. Wife and I are going to upgrade to new iPhones. Curious if you guys buy outright or monthly 0% plans with the provider. If it matters, I can get 5% back on Discover card if I buy online at the Apple store....

I have two 529s through Vangaurd (Nevada plan) for my two children, ages 2.5 and 9 months. I chose it based on fees and that I already have a Vanguard account and liked it all in one place. Massachusetts is now offering a tax deduction of up to $2000 for a Married couple (only about $67 per year aft...

My father is in a nursing home and my sister and I want to have a shared account to share which we would spend out of for him if he needs anything (clothes, toiletries, etc.). He basically has no assets at this point beyond the $72 per month allotted to him for personal needs after medicaid pays for...

If you have Amazon Prime you can get the Amazon Prime store card, which has a 5% rebate, and not worry about prepaying for gift cards on the Discover and Sallie Mae. It also has a $50 sign-up bonus right now. https://www.amazon.com/iss/credit/storecardmember This does sound good since I have Prime....

I have a few credit cards I use to maximize rewards. Curious if anybody else is maximizing like this or I am overthinking it to try to save a few bucks. I spend about $400 per month on Amazon on average. Right now, my Discover card has a quarterly benefit of 5% back on up to $1500 on Amazon and I ha...

To see how your strategy is flawed, compare your strategy with a) using some of your cash to buy your company shares at today's low price and b) keeping the stock options for their huge potential value. Apologize if I am being a little slow on this topic here, but I'm failing to understand this. Yo...

In case a), you will have a big loser on your hands. This is what happened to people who tried to be too cute in the tech crash of 2001. Frequently they also didn't have the cash to pay the taxes due upon exercise since they were counting on successfully selling the stock. That's the kind of analys...

To see how your strategy is flawed, compare your strategy with a) using some of your cash to buy your company shares at today's low price and b) keeping the stock options for their huge potential value. Apologize if I am being a little slow on this topic here, but I'm failing to understand this. If...

Hi all - I have uniformly exercised and sold same day for the NQSO I have from my company. However, I'm considering a different strategy right now and while unconventional, wondering if this makes sense or is very flawed. Here is the situation. Due to the birth of our second child, my wife took some...

Recently created a revocable trust as some of estate planning and I'm updating my beneficiaries on Vanguard, Life Insurance, etc. Vanguard is asking fir a Trust creation date. Anybody know if this is the date the legal doc was signed and the trust created or technically when I opened the trust accou...

Choosing between EPO and PPO for family plan. The EPO plan is $120 cheaper per month ($1440 per year). When I looked at the EPO - 10 doctors my family uses for various needs are all in network. All major Boston hospitals (and suburban hospitals near us are in network). Copays are basically the same ...

Just want to double check the information I am getting from my bank is correct. We recently did some basic estate planning (not particularly complicated, but we have kids so wanted to get it squared away). This included setting up a revocable trust to leave our assets to if something happens to both...

Curious what your thoughts are on this one. I was talking to a mortgage broker and currently rates are lower for a jumbo loan. Non-jumbo is around 3.75% to 3.875%. However, jumbo loans in my area are $523,250 or more. We are looking at homes in the $800-$850 range. My plan was to put down about $450...

You may want to check and make sure you have the right accounting for your NQSO sales... if you did a same day sale, the 1099 from your broker will show a gain, as they no longer include the taxable compensation that is also in your W2. So if you just entered straight from the 1099 you will be seei...

Out of the blue I just had car problems to the tune of nearly $4000. For me it was a mere annoyance to have to spend funds on something not particularly enjoyable because of my income and savings. However, I could see how a lot of people might need to put it on a card without having a lot of options...

I'm closing out a Citibank account as they are no longer brick and mortar in Massachusetts. I have a $5000 overdraft protection with them. I want to close this account out, but might be mortgage shopping in the next few months. According to credit karma, my TransUnion score is 811 and my Equifax is ...

At a high level you should be fine, provided that you and your wife are comfortable with doing without a few of the finer things for the first couple of years post-move (e.g., not going hog-wild with new furniture, remodeling, etc). The one thing you might have overlooked is the increased property ...

I'm 33, my wife is 30. That is still a lot of house that would not be a right choice for everyone so you need to be prepared to trade that off with your spending in some other areas for a while. You are in a great financial position but there is an old saying, "You can do anything you want, but not...

I also think you are lowballing closing costs and what it can cost to move. Yes, you can get low/no closing cost mortgages, but they recoup the lower closing costs by having a higher rate. When it comes time, shop, shop, shop for the best mortgage (and in your situation I would pay discount points ...

Hi all - looking for a sanity check on my home purchase numbers to make sure I'm in the right range. Please stick to advice about the finances of this home purchase and not the "I wouldn't spend X on a home" or "You don't need more space" or "Move to a cheaper town" comments. I appreciate the though...

I doubt this is a sound strategy, but wondering what you guys might think. I have some options that are fully vested and don't expire until 2022. My company's stock has been volatile as of late (as have many companies). While I exercise and sell RSUs immediately, since I have already been taxed on t...

Thanks all! I appreciate all the opinions on different calculations! :D At the end of the day, I'm not trying to calculate like an exact science. Just looking to illustrate the value to my wife. I handle the finances, but she was curious. She knows in theory that her pension as currently laid out is...

Trying to calculate the value of a Mass. teacher's pension. As we plan, I think it is important to understand the value there. Currently 11% is deducted toward the pensions, with a full 80% payout at age 58. My wife will have worked 37 years at retirement, and at current salary and conservative gro...

Will she also be eligible for SS. That's the biggest gripe I have about my wife's teacher pension plan: she gets a pension, but no SS. In her case she would be better off with SS and a 6% match in a 401k type vehicle. She is not - but she also doesn't contribute to SS. I haven't done the calculatio...

Trying to calculate the value of a Mass. teacher's pension. As we plan, I think it is important to understand the value there. Currently 11% is deducted toward the pensions, with a full 80% payout at age 58. My wife will have worked 37 years at retirement, and at current salary and conservative grow...

Curious if anybody else has experienced this. Due to some stock options that I sold I was contributing to a taxable account while also saving a large portion in cash for a new home downpayment or home renovation fund. The time horizon was vague during the past few years, but we are getting to making...

Can't one of you forego your career and stay home with the children ?? :shock: Have you price out how much that costs?:) Is it possible? :happy It's funny -- I think this is the dilemma of high five figure salary. I know plenty of people who have a parent with a lower income and the decision is sim...

So what do you do with that 110k? Stick it in CDs? Invest it in stocks and you run the risk of the money not being there. In general any of these bucket schemes just make life hard. Accept daycare is expensive and pay it out of cash flow. If you can't cash flow it, you should reconsider your budget...

This might just be me moving numbers around, but curious if anybody else thought of daycare costs like this. With our second on the way and four years of care expected for each child, I'd estimate in total it is about $110k (yes you read that number right). :oops: So from a budgeting perspective I c...

Looks like there are a ton of 4 bed / 2.5 bath homes in the $200-500k range all over the "HCOL" Boston area. Have you read the book, "The Millionaire Next Door", and similar books that talk about wasting money trying to keep up with the Jones's instead of what you need? You can spend more than what...

There are perfectly good forever homes for 150k. Where are we talking for 900k? Silicon Valley? I don't think there is anything that could ever make me want to pay 900k for a house. At 1%/y maintenance that's 9000 which is more than half of my yearly rent by itself. I would rather own a 300k house ...